Each year the district
holds a weekend Chapter Operations Training Seminar that's aimed at providing
chapter officers (and others) with the skills they'll need to manage and support
chapter activities. COTS includes several general sessions, plus a variety of
1-hour and 2-hour classes. The information provided during COTS is current, well
presented, and invaluable - both for the attendees and for the chapters that will
benefit from their skills and knowledge during the coming year. Every chapter
is encouraged to send as many members of its leadership team as possible, every
year. Here are the latest details we've received
about JAD's COTS.
Harmony Camp, held each summer in Columbus, Ohio and conducted
by the Singing Buckeyes Chapter of the Barbershop Harmony Society, is a world-renowned
program for high-school students. Here's what you get:
- Four days of fun for high school students, both young men
and women, interested in vocal performance.
- The camp will be held at The Ohio State University. (Click "Forms / Info" at
left for address.)
- Professional vocal instruction at an affordable price.
- An opportunity to sing with and learn from talented performers.
- A crash course in the intricacies of four-part, a cappella harmony.
- Instruction and experience in singing technique and stage presence.
- A performance in front of more than 2,000 barbershop enthusiasts.
- Special attention will be given to student quartets.
- A chance to make new friends from across the state.
If you're interested in learning more about Harmony Camp, including schedules,
costs, scholarships, sponsorships, and directions, here's
where you can find the latest information about the upcoming Harmony Camp.
There's
a new voluntary Society-wide program, implemented at the District level, that
is bound to help choruses and quartets everywhere improve their public performance
packages. The program is appropriately called the Standing Ovation
Program, because chapters and quartets that choose to take advantage of it
are bound to get a bunch more Standing O's from their audiences when they perform
in public. Any chapter that wants to help its chorus and quartets to present a
better public performance package should read more details here.
Apple Corps, our annual music education camp
and my all-time favorite JAD event, happens every year the second weekend in
June
at Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio. Plan to go - every year. There's
no better musical fun and learning value in the known universe! You can download
class schedules and registration information for Apple
Corps 2008 (12-15 June) here on the SingJAD Web site. Here are the available
forms: Class
descriptions and schedules (not provided yet); Individual
Registration Form; and Quartet
Registration Form.
And if you sign up a buddy who did not attend Apple Corps last
year and send his application along with yours, you'll qualify for a discount
on your own registration fee. Here's the Buddy
Coupon.
The Harmony
Foundation coordinates many programs to serve the Charitable mission of SPEBSQSA.
The program most critical to our Society's future is the Endowment Program. An
endowment is a fund in which the principal, or corpus, is invested and can never
be spent. Only the earnings from endowments may be used. Endowments essentially
last "forever." Endowment earnings can provide grants or services for
many of our Society's needs, and the larger the endowment, the more grants and
services we can provide. The Harmony Foundation's Endowment
Program currently has over $860,000 in assets. There are many more financial
commitments to the Endowment Program in end-of-lifetime gifts from dedicated Barbershoppers
like yourself. Do you have Harmony Foundation or SPEBSQSA in your will?
Working together, we can help future generations Sing ... for life! SPEBSQSA and MBNA are sponsoring
a Collegiate
Quartet Contest that could be your ticket to the barbershoppers' international
convention, plus cash prizes! JAD's Jim
Ramsey will be happy to fill you in on the details. Just drop
Jim an email message with your name, snail-mail address, and phone number,
and tell him you're interested in the College Quartet Contest. What
are your chances of winning? Pretty good, if you're from JAD: since the College
Quartet Contest was first instituted, more winners have come from JAD than
from any other district in the Society!
JAD's youth outreach
program is called Young Men in Harmony (YMIH). JAD
now has a separate Web site devoted specifically to the YMIH program. It's
packed with useful information, links, and forms that will be of interest to you
whether you're a high-school age singer interested in barbershopping or a vocal-music
teacher looking for resources to help you introduce barbershop harmony to your
kids. Here's
where you can visit the JAD YMIH site! For more
information about any of these outstanding events for young people, e-mail Mike
Banish, or call him at home at (614) 891-4569, or at work at 224-5917, Ext.
102. You can also explore SPEBSQSA's
YMIH program on the Society's Web site.
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Last update: 26 March 2008
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